Tuesday and, Wednesday, Crater Lake Area

Oh my, but the days are racing by!

On Tuesday we returned once again to Crater Lake National Park. Although we knew the Southeastern most section of the rim drive was closed, we hoped we could still get to one or more of the moderate hikes on the park map. Seems I've really gotten to like hiking! 


The trails we really wanted were closed, but the Garfield Peak trail was open much of the way. If you go all of the way to the top,  you reach the highest hiking point in the park. We were able to go about two miles before we reached a snowy blockade. A path was cut through, but on the advice of some returning hikers I opted to wait below while Craig went up beyond the snow. 


My view was pretty good. I didn't feel the need to go higher. As I waited for Craig to come back down, I watched as one gal (much younger than I) slipped and fell. Her companion had to help her the rest of the way down the snowy path. 

Craig rested after our hike, while I went off to find a restroom.  We then found a picnic table in the snow and had lunch. After that we went up to the lodge and enjoyed a ranger talk before returning to our RV park.


We plan on going back up to the lake on Friday or Saturday for one more look. Can't get too much of its beauty!


I found a book of hiking trails in the office of our campground. In it I found what seemed like a good hike for us to do on Wednesday. It was in the National Forest and it looked like the access wasn't far from our RV park. The hike was a bit longer than I wanted (10 miles) but it didn't look very hard.


Although I had both a printed map and written directions, we were still able to get a little lost looking for the trailhead! We saw a sign that said "Sevenmile Creek trailhead" at the first road we came to, and turned. It was a cinder road.  We drove six or so miles to its end, and found no trailhead. 


We tried a side rod, but it was very rough and more suitable for a Jeep than an Accent. After a short distance we turned around.


When we got back to the turnoff for the cinder road we saw there was another road right next to it. It was gravel, but smoother than the first. It was the right road and we found the trailhead. 

This trail was quite different from what we've become accustomed to in the National Park. It was not well marked and hadn't been maintained for a long time.


This view is of a more cleared section. 

The further up we went the more downed trees and deadfall we encountered.

At many points the trail became completely overgrown with small trees, and we had to guess which way to go.  


Is this the trail?  
Or does it go over there?

I didn't take a picture when we got to the point where we could no longer find the trail. Guessing which way to go is not a good practice when you are in a somewhat wild forest. 


So after about two and a half miles we decided to turn back.  At one point we thought we were going in the right direction when Craig checked it with the compass feature on his Android phone. Oops, we were going in the wrong direction!

I'm glad we turned around while we were still able to find the way we had come.


It was still a nice hike, but only about five miles round trip! 


I'm really not going to be satisfied with two miles on the treadmill when I get home!